


Good Bye

by jacksonja



Category: Charmed (TV), The Big Bang Theory (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-06-08 06:06:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15237051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jacksonja/pseuds/jacksonja
Summary: Shenny AU. Penny is leaving Pasadena and tells Sheldon why. She has a past he would never have expected.





	Good Bye

**Author's Note:**

> An AU of the Big Bang Theory set sometime around season three so far as age goes to start but not particularly close to canon.  
> Other folks own the characters and all, I'm just playing with them.
> 
> I felt the original was too abrupt from Penny/Billie leaving and meeting him again in Sweden. I also carried on a bit after our couple get back to Switzerland to round out the ending.

‘Danger, Danger… Penny?’ Sheldon was a bit groggy from awakening suddenly but he could never fail to recognize his chaos fairy neighbor from across the hall sitting on his bed. ‘Penny, no one can be in my room.’

‘Hi, sweetie, I know, I just came to say good bye.’

‘Good bye? I don’t understand.’ Surely, Penny didn’t have to come to his room and wake him just to announce she was leaving where she shouldn’t have come to begin with?

Penny looked down, closed her eyes, and sighed. Sheldon deserved more than good bye. They had circled each other too long. They bickered, they played video games, and they trusted each other now. Trust, it was something Penny didn’t think she could feel anymore until Sheldon of all people had changed that for her.

‘I am leaving. I’m leaving Pasadena, Sheldon,’ 

‘Why?’ 

Penny looked up at Sheldon’s question. He was trying to figure out the meaning of her leaving. She knew how he hated unexpected change. 

‘You, of all the gang, deserve more than just good bye.’ Penny gazed off to the side for some seconds thinking of where to start. ‘I stopped looking for my Nobel, I suppose, is the best way to say it. I gave up my dreams and I gave up on who I was.’

‘Penny, you are being very vague and sounding slightly suicidal if that didn’t seem so out of character for you.’ Sheldon was growing worried about her. Penny being abruptly and unexpectedly in his room, talking about leaving, and now about losing her dreams, it all added up to someone that might do harm to themselves.

‘Yeah, I guess I am.’ Penny sighed and wondered if this was a mistake but she was already this far. ‘I’m going back home. I have things to do there. Consequences I should have faced a long time ago. I ran away and tried to… bury part of me but I can’t do that anymore.’ 

‘You are returning to Omaha? You said you never wanted to go back there.’ Sheldon was getting too many mixed messages. Penny still hadn’t really explained anything. ‘What is wrong? Is it Leonard?’

‘No, it’s not him, well, not really. He’s a symptom, not a cause. And I am not going to Omaha. I’m not even really from there. That was all part of giving me a backstory for living here.’ Penny had to start facing the truth. That was her real problem. She’d been hiding from it. She’d been burying everything with her, with her sister. ‘Would you like some tea, a hot beverage may be what you need. This story is a bit to take in.’

Sheldon was wondering if Penny was in some kind of witness protection program and they were moving her. That would explain a fake family in Omaha if that was what Penny meant by not really being from there?

Penny held up her hand and a cup appeared in it. Sheldon could smell chamomile. ‘How did you-?’

‘That’s the hard part to take in.’ Penny handed the cup to Sheldon. ‘Honey?’ a bottle of honey appeared. Sheldon thought this might be an elaborate dream but dreams don’t typically stay this linear. ‘I forgot a spoon to stir.’ 

That too appeared. Penny stirred the tea and honey and then the honey bottle and spoon vanished leaving Sheldon his tea. ‘It’s not a trick or illusion, Sheldon. It’s what I am; it’s what I can do.’ Penny had Sheldon’s full attention. He observed her minutely like he was puzzling out a problem on one of his whiteboards. ‘I can do magic. I haven’t used those powers since I came to Pasadena. I wanted to escape what I was and what I had been and done. I tried to escape with sex, with alcohol, even with Leonard. I was trying to be something I wasn’t.’

Sheldon took what Penny said at face value. The impossible tea in his hand was empirical fact whatever the means of its appearance that it was here was indisputable. ‘What were you, then? What changed that you are telling me. You’ve obviously kept this hidden, though I suppose that the magic explains your fondness for astrology and psychics.’

‘It was Missy that started me thinking.’

‘Missy, my sister, is she some magic user, too?’ 

‘No, she’s just so different from you. Me trying to be Penny, the struggling actress, it is like you turning off that beautiful mind of yours and trying to live like Missy or maybe your mom. Could you go all Jesus saves?’

‘Of course not, I’d sooner believe in Harry Potter- oh, good Lord, is my mother right?’

Penny laughed at that. ‘No, no, from what I know of the other side, it’s nothing like what any church goes on about. Your skepticism is still well merited in that regard. But there is a world of witches and other things, some very dangerous, and I am a part of that world. I left it because of my sister, Christy. I killed her.’ Penny blurted it out afraid it wouldn’t come at all if she hesitated. Sheldon looked shocked by the killing admission though he kept silent which Penny thanked the heavens for. ‘We got involved with some bad people. They wanted to use our power. My sister and I, we have special gifts, powers rarely found and rarely so strong. Mine is Projection. It lets me bend and change reality. I can change time and space, alter it, shape it, move through it. Make a cup of tea. Together, we could do anything, anything you could imagine. We almost did. We fought because I didn’t want to go down that path, an apocalypse. She tried to kill us, me and my friends who saved me from what I was doing with Christy. I wanted to bring her back home but she wouldn’t stop. She attacked us and I killed her. I can still see her burning to ash. I can still hear her screams as she burned.’

Penny fell silent and haunted. Sheldon put his tea down on the bedside table and took Penny’s hand.

‘Coming here to Pasadena, everything I’ve done since, has been trying to forget that night. Trying to forget what I did. I was running away from the consequences of my powers. When Missy came here and I saw you together I started to realize what I was doing. The drinking, the failed acting, a dead end job, getting in a relationship with a guy who cheats on me and sabotages his best friend, all of it was guilt because I didn’t want to face what I did to Christy. That’s why I have to go. I have to let Penny go. She’s my guilty conscience.’

‘So, why me, why tell me all this?’ Sheldon wanted to understand why Penny couldn’t stay. Nothing had sounded like there needed to be any changes a schedule change couldn’t fix. ‘It all sounds like you know what has to change but why do you have to leave to do it? You have created a life here, made friends here, why give it up? Why give us up?’

‘I guess, like Spider-Man, great power and all that.’ Penny looked pensive for a minute. ‘Let me show you something, something wonderful.’ She stood up from the bed and drew Sheldon up to stand beside her. ‘First, we need some new clothes.’

‘It’s after midnight. It’s hardly time to go shopping other than on the Internet.’

‘No stores, no worries there, Sheldon.’ 

Penny stepped back a pace and closed her eyes a moment. Sheldon abruptly felt newly clothed and slightly choking. He looked at his dresser mirror where he saw his and Penny’s clothes had morphed. He was wearing an old fashioned looking tuxedo and she was dressed in a Victorian era gown and corset from the way her waist was cinched in.

‘Why are you trying to strangle me with this suit?’

‘Oh, is the ascot bothering you? Be happy you are not wearing a corset. Though, there is a lot to say for the back support. Anyway, this get up was all the rage in 1901.’

‘Why are we cosplaying the end of the Victorian era?’

‘You’ll see but you must promise me two things, swear it on your Meemaw’s life.’

Sheldon looked awry at Penny. ‘That’s some serious swearing.’

‘Better believe it, Moonpie.’

‘Only my Meemaw calls me Moonpie, but I will swear it. What are your two things?’

‘First, you stay with me, hold my hand the whole time. No running off.’

‘I’m not a child, Penny.’ Sheldon could see the Age of Conan look of grim determination in Penny’s face and agreed.

‘Second, no talking to anyone, and keep it down, even with me.’

‘I had no idea we were going anywhere but I agree.’

Penny smiled and took Sheldon’s hands in hers and shushed him. She closed her eyes and for a few seconds everything got blurry and grey then they were standing in an ornate hallway. An orchestra was playing on the floor below and over the balcony they were standing near he could see a crowd of people dressed like he and Penny were. Jewels and feathers, and beards and cigars mixed together with everyone enjoying champagne and exotic food. It was the most elaborate cosplay Sheldon had ever seen in his life. When it occurred to him that he’d simply appeared here from his bedroom without moving, he fainted.

Sheldon smelt the acrid scent of smelling salts and coughed. He looked up to see Penny and an oddly familiar man and woman maybe ten or fifteen years older than Penny and him. ‘He comes around, tres bien.’ The woman with the slightly Polish accent pocketed the salts. ‘Your husband seems over heated; perhaps, the ascot is too tight?’

‘Maybe, I put it on him and he did say it was strangling him. I guess I should have listened.’ Penny thanked the couple and the woman’s husband helped Sheldon up. Sheldon suddenly looked faint again so the man helped him to a chair.

‘You’re Pierre and Marie Curie.’ Sheldon choked on the names and looked like he was meeting God himself.

Pierre Curie bowed. ‘Thank you; you have the advantage of us, Mr.?’

‘Cooper, sir, Sheldon Lee Cooper, Doctor Cooper, and this is my… Penny.’

‘A pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Cooper.’ Marie Curie shook Penny’s hand. Penny was feeling a little light headed at the moment since she did know who this woman was. She had always admired her.

‘Thank you. Sheldon was so excited to be here, so many famous scientists, it’s kind of like meeting the gods for him. He’s a physicist back home in America. He’s hoping he might get to be one of the winners here, someday.’

Both Curies nodded. ‘We have similar ambitions. Perhaps, we will see you up there one day, Doctor.’ Pierre said cordially. 

‘Well, we should get to our seats, Pierre. Good evening Doctor Cooper, Mrs. Cooper.’ Marie subtly handed the salts to Penny. ‘In case of further emergencies.’

Sheldon watched the couple walk down the hall and out of earshot. ‘Penny, they are… do you know who they are?’

‘Yes, remember your promises?’

‘No wandering, no talking, but Penny, they are the Curies!’

‘Yes, they are. Do you remember the year I mentioned?’

‘190…1, oh, dear Lord.’

‘Yup, Dec 10, Royal Concert Hall, Stockholm.’ Penny smiled and held out her hand. ‘If you hurry, you can see a bit of your future, maybe.’

Sheldon gazed everywhere like a mortal allowed onto Mount Olympus to see the gods. The Curies were only the first of the faces Sheldon saw that he dreamed of joining. He was so wonderstruck the promises to Penny seemed almost superfluous. These were Sheldon’s geniuses and giants. They had changed the world with their minds. He felt almost presumptuous being here. The master of ceremonies gathered the attention of the crowd and began the announcement of the award for Physics. Sheldon was hardly breathing and stared without blinking. He didn’t want to miss a moment. Penny wondered if she might need the salts again for a second. ‘The award for Physics goes to Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by the discovery of the remarkable rays subsequently named after him.’

They listened to the acceptance speech of the first winner of a Nobel Prize for Physics and Sheldon wanted to go up towards the podium with the people congratulating Röntgen but Penny held him back. ‘We have to go now, Sheldon. Remember, you promised. You’ll have your time here, yet, I have no doubt.’

Sheldon looked into Penny’s eyes like he was seeing her for the first time in his life, like when she first called him a beautiful mind but he could only guess at the wonders in her mind. He was ready to follow her anywhere in this moment. Penny thought she might just stay if Sheldon asked her to looking at her like that. 

They walked back up the grand staircase to the quiet hallway they first appeared in. Sheldon wrapped Penny in a fierce hug. She was shocked but she guessed this would top Leonard Nimoy. Penny hugged him back and they only broke apart when a waiter tsked a bit at the informality of their behavior. They both blushed a bit and let the waiter pass.

Billie Jenkins took Sheldon’s hands this time and Sheldon took a last look around the famous Swedish Hall. The world went grey and blurry again and then they were back in his bedroom.

Sheldon had to sit. He’d heard that phrase often enough. He’d felt the fact of it tonight. This is what the Doctor’s companions must feel like after their first trip through time and space. He tried to grasp the measure of this event and fathom what Penny really was. His career was all about learning to understand the building blocks of reality. Penny could play with them like Legos. It was inconceivable. ‘That was wonderful. You can do that. Go anywhere? Go anywhen? Make anything?’

Billie sat down next to Sheldon. ‘Yes, and much more, it’s a terrible power. I need to be responsible for it. I can’t do that here. Not as Penny.’ Billie couldn’t look at Sheldon without falling apart; there were too many emotions in her head. It was time.

Sheldon understood he couldn’t ask Penny to stay. He wasn’t sure what responsibilities or obligations went with the power to do what she did this evening unless she was a Time Lord. She was something more than that. The Doctor needed technology to do what he did but Penny did it with her mind. The implications staggered him but in this moment there was just Penny and she looked small. He reached up and stroked her hair. ‘I think I understand a little. You’re right. It is too much power for ordinary people like us. But you are not ordinary, Penny. I have no words for what you are except my mom’s. You are a miracle. I’m sorry. I judged you by academics and college degrees. We all did but I should have known better. My Meemaw would kick me right about now.’

‘That’s OK, sweetie, who’d have believed it, anyway?' Billie turned to Sheldon's eyes memorizing this moment. 'Remember what we did. You belong there, Sheldon, more than anyone.’ Billie leaned in and kissed Sheldon tenderly and then she was gone.

‘Penny?’ Sheldon looked around the room but he knew he wouldn’t find her. He rushed out of his bedroom still wearing the tuxedo. It was surprising for Leonard. He was watching Babylon 5 with Raj and Howard. Sheldon hardly glanced at them. He didn't even disparage B5.

‘Going to a party for spies, Sheldon?’ The tuxedo looked strange enough. Sheldon’s behavior hardly made it stranger. Leonard watched him grab the spare keys for 4B from the bowl and breeze out the door. Leonard and the guys wondered what could have gotten into Sheldon this time. They followed him across the hall into Penny’s apartment then stopped as frozen as he was. It was empty. ‘What’s going on, Sheldon? Penny dropped by about an hour ago looking for you but you were already in bed.’

‘How did she get all her stuff out,’ Howard asked, ‘I’m sure we’d have heard or seen something, the motion detectors should have.’

‘Where did she go?’ Raj asked for everyone.

Leonard walked into Penny’s bedroom. It was just as empty as the rest of the apartment. It was like she had never been there. ‘Sheldon, do you know what happened to Penny?’

‘The magic is gone.’ Sheldon left the three guys to the empty apartment and went back to his bedroom. 

He ignored Leonard’s knocking and questions. Later, Leonard knocked again asking if he knew why there were no answers at the Omaha numbers. Sheldon knew there wouldn’t be any answers there, either. He just lay in the bed staring at the ceiling. He glanced at the bedside table to look at the teacup Penny gave him. The cup was gone and a small box he had never seen before was in its place. He opened it. Inside was a plush kitten. He could feel what was, probably, a music box inside. A note in the box said ‘My name is Penelope, pet me when you feel sick or sad.’ Sheldon pet the plush doll. Penny’s voice began singing ‘Soft Kitty’. Sheldon cried and fell asleep and dreamed of Sweden.

2 Years Later  
CalTech, Pasadena, California

‘Christ, Leonard, shut that crap music off. Some of us would like to work.’ Leslie Winkle's week with Leonard's Dolorous Life had created a mood that sent every grad student in the department scurrying in terror from any room she entered.

‘You don’t get it, Leslie, Priya wants a divorce.’

‘No shit, you cheated on her.’ Leslie was thinking about how she could stage a fatal accident. Leonard had gotten on her last nerve at least two weeks before when he’d complained the divorce terms were ridiculous.

‘I wasn’t cheating, it was an accident.’

‘Leonard, an accident is spilling your coffee. Diddling a bar girl in the backroom of a nightclub is fucking cheating.’

‘I had some drinks, she looked like Penny. I wasn’t trying to hurt Priya or anything. I love her.’

So that’s why you got caught schtupping a clone of Malibu Barbie?’ Leslie’s disgust with all this was complete.

‘Hey, what we had was special. We were gonna have beautiful kids. We were made for each other then she disappeared. She could be dead, not as if anyone cares.’

‘Yeah, what was Barbie’s favorite food?’

‘What? How do I know?’ Leonard put another of his emo-music choices on.

‘How about her birthday, when was that?’

‘Around Christmas, I think, so what?’

‘So what, yeah, fucking destiny, prick.’ Leslie stormed out of the lab before she did something personally satisfying but professionally suicidal.

She walked in a stew trying to calm her anger down before she ran into some idiot like Kripke. When she noticed she was a few doors from Cooper’s office she figured a few jabs at dumbass might put a better humor on the day. Hell, at least they could talk about his work. She was still finding it hard to believe he asked her to peer review his theory. If nothing else, he wouldn’t be sulking like Leonard over some actress that blew him off. She knocked and heard the invite to come in.

‘Hey, dumbass, wanna kill Leonard?’

‘I expect Priya and Raj are at the front of that line and I respect the code of the feud. It’s a Texas thing. Coffee?’ Sheldon waved Leslie to a chair.

‘Sure, thanks. When did you become a coffee drinker?’

‘I didn’t, but you’re down here often enough running the numbers with me, I got some for you.’ Sheldon fiddled about with a sachet of a decent brand of Guatemalan coffee and a French press.

‘What made you get Guatemalan since you don’t touch coffee?’

‘I heard you eviscerating a grad student for getting into your stash in the lab last month. The smell was quite distinctive. It was easy to find the brand by that. Would you prefer another?’ He asked as he passed her the ready coffee press and mug on a small tray.

Leslie poured and gave it a taste. ‘No, this is pretty darn perfect.’ Cooper was a strange one. One minute he was a troglodyte the next he was one of the most thoughtful men she’d ever met. She sipped her coffee while Sheldon restarted an episode of Doctor Who on his laptop. She figured it was one of the Christmas specials since they were going on about snowmen constantly. Leonard and Sheldon weren’t roommates anymore. Leonard had moved out, or Sheldon kicked him out, sometime after Barbie went AWOL and before marrying Priya. Leslie wanted to test a hypothesis.

‘Leonard is driving me up the wall worse than any grad student. He won’t shut up about the divorce or Malibu Barbie; he keeps going on about how he and Barbie would have had beautiful kids.’ She saw the twitch in Sheldon’s eye that he got when he started getting worked up good.

‘*Penny* didn’t feel the same.’ Leslie caught the emphasis on Penny's name. Leonard never noticed or cared what she called the Nebraskan actress.

Sheldon got up from his episode of Doctor Who and picked up a marker and pointed out one of the boards. ‘What do you think of using that operator there?’

Leslie scanned the math. ‘Workable but you need to back it up further. That’s an unsupported leap.’

Sheldon nodded in agreement and kept staring at the board. Leslie had been around Sheldon long enough, now, to know he was really getting his emotions under control with the mathematical equations on the board.

‘Maybe she didn’t but Leonard keeps saying they were made for each other. Like, what was her favorite food?’

‘Spaghetti with Mama Italia Marinara sauce.’ Sheldon said absent mindedly while he reworked the lines Leslie said needed backing up.

‘Or her birthday?’

‘Dec 2nd. There, how does that look?’

‘It looks a lot clearer.’ Leslie thought a lot a lot of things looked clearer. Sheldon sat down and drifted back into his show. She had one further test question. ‘What do you think made Leonard’s Barbie leave?’

The twitch was stronger this time. ‘Penny wasn’t his. They’d broken up, a second time,'

Leslie nodded, she remembered the emo-hell of those days without any fondness.

'And as for why Penny left…’ Sheldon touched up the volume of the episode and got noticeably involved beyond just pop entertainment enjoyment.

-DOCTOR: That's no more a box than you are a governess. 

-CLARA: Oh, spoken like a man. You know, you're the same as all the rest. Sweet little Clara, works at the Rose And Crown, ideas above her station. Well, for your information, I'm not sweet on the inside, and I'm certainly not little.

Sheldon stopped the episode abruptly. ‘She said she had better things to do,’ Sheldon got up and looked at the boards behind the desk for a minute, ‘And she was right.’ Sheldon finished the thought with loss and sadness obvious in his voice. He turned back to the desk and picked up his phone and keys with a sad glower and simply walked out and left without a word. Leslie got up and looked down the empty hallway. Cooper had actually left the building.

‘Interesting.’ Leslie shut the door and went back to the desk, sat down with another cup of the excellent coffee and scanned through the episode for the scene that had just played. She replayed it a few times and thought about Clara and Penny. Clara, a waitress who was posing as a governess, both Clara and Penny were actresses. 

‘Spoken like a man, sweet and little, ideas above her station, I’m not sweet and I’m not little’ I’ll bet that was heard a lot between those cave geeks and Penny. 

She watched the episode in full to give her time to ponder why Sheldon might have picked this episode and reacted so strongly to that scene in particular. The Doctor was socially cut off from life. He had nothing to do with anyone except a small select group of friends and then only under his terms. That fit Sheldon to a T. The girl, Clara, up ended that isolation just as Penny had to Sheldon and his group of minions. The scene when the Doctor gave Clara the key was obviously a metaphor for a proposal. ‘Me giving in,’ the Doctor had said giving Clara a TARDIS key like a man giving an engagement ring. 'So, Cooper, Penny had ‘Better things to do,' hmm?’ 

Leslie looked at the boards and considered the kind of work Sheldon had produced in the last two years since Penny up and vanished, and the small things like remembering Penny’s favorite food and her birthday. ‘Are you trying to forget her, Cooper, or are you trying to prove something to her?’

3 years later  
Dec 10, Stockholm, Sweden

Press Conference

‘Dr. Winkle, How long have you worked with Dr. Cooper?’

‘Directly, about four years, we were at CalTech together a couple of years before that.’

‘By directly, do you mean in developing his proof of String Theory?’

‘Yes, we’d been at opposite sides of the debate on it for years. He approached me because in science you work to disprove a new theory, take it apart, and look for flaws and mistakes and misconceptions in the idea. He expected I would do that pretty effectively. The first time I read it, I thought about killing him and taking the idea for myself. It was that brilliant.’

The reporters laughed at the deadpan humor Leslie Winkle was becoming known for around this year’s Nobel Ceremony. It made the articles more relatable to the general public when the scientists were not just talking science over everyone’s heads. There was talk that she was on track for a Nobel next year with work that came out of the research she had been doing with Dr. Cooper.

‘Dr. Winkle, since you worked with Dr. Cooper so much on his theory, do you ever wish for more credit?’

‘No. The dumbass offered to share the prize but I don’t like claiming other people’s work. The genius of this was all him. I was just the sounding board.’

The reporters chuckled at the nickname she had for Sheldon Cooper. At first, the rumor was that there was animosity in the team over the credit for the award but eventually everyone saw it was some kind of affectionate in-joke between them.

‘You seem to be close to Dr. Cooper, what would you say he might have been inspired by to come up with a theory like this?’

Leslie pondered the question for a minute. She’d asked that question to herself a number of times, she had her theories but only Sheldon could say if she was right. He and Leonard had very different reactions to the same event. Leslie felt confident of who the catalyst was. She sometimes debated asking Sheldon but she’d never be rude enough to invade that kind of privacy.

‘I couldn’t say what happened to inspire him but I’m pretty sure of when it was, about five years ago. He got focused in a way I never saw before. We used to wrangle a lot about theory but it was around five years ago that he started to seek me out more to debate insights he’d come up with. They were different from the old arguments before that, lightening strokes of brilliance.’

Dec 10, Stockholm  
Outside the Royal Concert Hall

Sheldon stepped outside for some air. He had gotten better around people. He had tried some acting classes and they actually had some useful techniques for him. He needed a scene break before he could take any more congratulations.

‘I knew you’d make it here.’

Sheldon spun around. She was here, Penny was here. He swept her up in a hug before he could think.

‘Easy, there, sweetie, I still need to breath.’ Billie held on though. She couldn’t think of letting him go right now. ‘Was it as good as you hoped?’

‘Not until now, I missed you.’

‘I missed you, too, Moonpie.’ Sheldon chewed his lip but he didn’t tell her she couldn’t say it. Nothing really compared to that.

‘How are you? I read the press releases, but they don’t say anything important.’

‘Still single, found Leslie Winkle wasn’t quite as bad as I thought, moved to Geneva and CERN. A friend of mine taught me about not living up to your potential. I was hiding at CalTech. It was safe there.’

Billie smiled. ‘Good. You deserve it. I brought some more of Marie’s salts, just in case.’

Sheldon smiled and took the antique container.

‘Will you come in? There is a reception. I think they might even have a Waltz.’

‘I thought in no universe does Sheldon Cooper ever dance?’

‘I think that should be amended to he never dances without you, Mrs. Cooper it was, the last time we were here.’

‘Billie, now, Doctor Cooper, Billie Jenkins.’

‘Hey, Sheldon, some press people are looking for you.’ Leonard called out coming through the doors to the balcony. Sheldon closed his eyes and grimaced at the unfairness of random action. 

‘Hey, was that Penny?’ Leonard rushed out of the doorway and up to Sheldon. 

Sheldon opened his eyes and she was gone again. There had been no good bye this time.

‘Hmm, no, that wasn’t Penny, just a friend congratulating me on the Nobel.’

‘She sure looked like Penny. She must move like the Flash, though. Where’d she go?’

‘Somewhere else.’

‘Very informative, so who was she. That was an awfully pretty friend you were meeting out here.’

‘No one you know, Leonard.’ Sheldon’s phone signaled a text message. He glanced at it with relief. :Wilhelmina Jenkins: Le Bistrot du Boucher, Avenue Pictet-de-Rochemont 15, 1207 Genève: Tue. 19.00, cu, )Pi.

Sheldon felt better about the evening. Waltzing would have to wait.

‘Was Wilhelmina the girl I saw?’

‘Is that a question your wife would want me to answer, Leonard? You don’t need another divorce.’

‘Jeeze, I was just asking.’

‘Wilhelmina is a friend in Switzerland. No, I won’t tell you more. No, there is no need for introductions. You are going home to California and staying out of trouble.’

‘Hey, dumbass, the press wants you. Stop stealing time with my husband.’ Leslie had popped her head through the balcony doors not wanting to be in the cold.

‘Coming, Leslie.’ Sheldon called. He still remembered the shock on her face when he asked her for help four years ago on the work that led here. It had changed them. They weren’t friends but they weren’t enemies anymore. Oddly, he'd grown closer to Leslie now than Leonard. Sheldon thought they might just be adults. He turned back to his erstwhile roommate. ‘Divorce would be the least of your problems, Leonard, if you ever cross her.’ Sheldon laughed at Leonard’s confused stare and headed inside thanking Leslie for calling him. ‘Better take care of him before the cold gets to his mediocre brain.’ 

‘Is he trying to get you to go do something stupid with him?’

‘No, he’s just missing his younger days. Routine is the bugbear of simple minds’

Sheldon pulled out his phone, cleared his Tuesday schedule, and looked up the menu for the Bistro while he walked to the conference room to talk to the press.

Dec 15  
Pasadena, California

‘What the hell is this?’ Leonard had been buggy ever since Sweden. It was driving Leslie up the wall and now he was pacing with one of the Hexina novels. It was the latest volume which Leslie had bought for her niece as a Christmas present.

‘It’s a book, Leonard. You’ve got enough of them to recognize one by now?’

‘Have you seen the writer?’ Leonard was sounding like he did after one of his break ups, childish and vexed. Leslie had thought he was over that kind of bullshit.

‘Who, Billie Jenkins? Not personally, so what?’

‘So what? She’s Penny!’

Leslie Winkle felt a murderous twinge in her gut, not in an angry way, but in a self-admonishing way. The dumbass (sorry Sheldon, he’s taken your title) still hadn’t gotten over Malibu Barbie. She berated herself for thinking he would after everything she knew about him and his obsession with Penny.

‘Leonard, Billie Jenkins is an award winning writer of young adult novels; Malibu Barbie was a barely competent waitress who was a crappy would be actress. What are you going on about?’ Leslie barely remembered what Penny looked like. She knew how both Leonard and Sheldon felt about Penny so she had no problems belittling her to Leonard. She knew what Barbie really meant to him.

‘Billie Jenkins, I’ll bet she’s Wilhelmina. Sheldon’s been seeing her behind my back.’

Leslie nodded and started considering calling Leonard’s mother and getting some EMTs with tranquilizers.

‘What about you? You’re buying her books; you’ve been working attached at the hip to Sheldon. Did you know about this?’

Leslie raised an eyebrow and scanned Leonard’s face neutrally. He was losing it and Leslie was thinking more soberly about psychiatrists and tranquilizers. ‘Leonard, be careful with my niece’s Christmas present. It’s too close to Christmas to try and get another one. And Sheldon is about as likely to read a book about teenage witches as I am to buying a book about the evils of feminism.’

Leonard put the book down on Leslie’s desk and huffed. ‘Fine, take his side; I’m going over to Howard’s.’

Leslie breathed a sigh of relief when the front door shut and she heard Leonard’s car start up and pull away. She pulled up her skype list and dialed Sheldon on his hotline number. It would actually set off his alarm at home on his phone, his computers, and his clocks. She had thought this idea was too much comic book nonsense until now. She had been overwhelmed to learn only his mother, sister, and Meemaw had this number besides her. Sheldon had insisted she have it after she got engaged to Leonard. She’d thought he was being condescendingly patriarchal with it at the time but she was relieved by his foresight right now.

‘I assume Leonard imploded?’ Sheldon looked like a man woken up at 3am which he was. She wanted to hate the fucking dumbass genius sometimes but she thanked the gods for him today.

Leslie held up the Hexina novel, ‘He saw her in Sweden, didn’t he, around the time of the first press conference, I figure?

‘Leslie, I’m sorry, Billie doesn’t-‘

‘Hey, Cooper, I’m not asking for explanations. You two don’t owe me or Leonard any explanations or apologies now or for five years ago, I just want to know when the Barbie bug up his ass got started again.’ As far as Leslie was concerned, it really didn’t matter if Billie Jenkins was Penny or not. Billie was another person who had nothing to do with this. Besides, if she was Penny, she'd made her choice when she had left Pasadena and made a better life for herself.

Sheldon sighed. He’d hoped Leonard would have put his brief glimpse of Billie down to the dark and her disappearing so quickly that it was a figment of his imagination. Unfortunately, his whole relationship with Penny had been based on his imagination of her. ‘She came to congratulate me on the Nobel. She was there only a few minutes outside the hall to say hi. Leonard caught sight of her and he was like a hound on a scent after that.’

Leslie nodded in acknowledgement. ‘I figured; he started acting screwy after Sweden, old pictures, stories, and when he saw the novel just now he started saying you were sneaking behind his back with Penny and I was helping you. Who’s Wilhelmina, he was talking about her, too?’

‘That's Billie's, she sent me a text after she left; an invite to dinner in Geneva, Leonard read her name and wanted to know too much about her. I tried putting him off but he’s persistent.’ Sheldon wanted to talk to Billie and let her know what was going on. She came into the living room just at that moment. She had always had uncanny timing even back in Pasadena; he wondered if it was coincidence or an incidental byproduct of her and her powers?

‘Sheldon, what are you doing up? Is this all part of every alarm in Switzerland going off?’

‘Good morning, Ms. Jenkins, I’m Leslie Winkle. Congratulations on the new novel, my niece loves the series.’ Leslie smiled happy to have finally gotten an answer to whether Sheldon was forgetting her or proving something to her.

‘Hi, thanks, it is 3am here; I’m kind of out of it right now. What’s going on?’

‘My husband, Leonard, saw you two in Sweden and he thinks you are an old ex of his that he, evidently, still hasn’t gotten over. I’m sorry, Ms. Jenkins, this has nothing to do with you. This is all about Sheldon and me and our Pasadena days with Leonard, all before your time.’ Leslie didn’t need the embarrassment of a popular author getting mixed up in this and if she was Penny this was an easy out for her. She’d already served her time with Leonard; Leslie would feel like shit if she got dragged back into this after she’d turned her life around.

‘Oh… I’m sorry,’ Billie looked pensive and like she wished she hadn’t gotten out of bed, ‘would it help if I talked to him?’

Looking at her reaction on the monitor, Leslie was sure Billie and Penny really were one and the same. She wished Billie hadn’t come in and gotten involved. The renowned author wasn’t responsible for Leonard being a dumbass. ‘No, I think that could only make things worse. Leonard is acting like a kid that needs a kick in the ass. He needs to get over some old hang ups; you look too much like a past he is never getting back. On the other hand, you could send an autographed copy of your latest book. My niece, Christy, would love it and I would be a goddess to her if you could get it here in time for Christmas.’

Billie got a little vacant eyed for a moment and bit her bottom lip in thought. ‘Sure, I can do that, no problems. I guess Sheldon has your address?’

‘Yes, he’s got it, thanks. Do you mind if I chat with him for a bit? It is 3am there, you look like you could use a bit more sleep, Billie. Thanks for the book.’ Leslie didn’t want the woman to be dealing with this. She’d found her answers five years ago. There was no need to retake the exam. She waved goodnight to Billie Jenkins.

‘She’s going to worry, it’s who she is.’ Sheldon was a little worried for Leslie, too. He never before thought he’d ever have that idea in mind.

‘Don’t let her eat herself up over it. You and Billie don’t owe us anything. I just wanted to know what kicked this off. Honestly, I blame myself more than him since I knew what Mal-… Penny could drive him to.’ Leslie sat back looking exasperated. ‘I just thought, all these years, he’d be over that. I think he can’t accept she didn’t want him in the end and he can’t admit he never really cared about her that much to begin with.’

‘Yes, well, that’s why I couldn’t deal with him as a roommate after Penny left.’ Sheldon paused when Billie came back in the room. She was carrying some tea for Sheldon. She whispered something to Cooper that Leslie couldn’t catch but he was nodding like it was important. ‘Good idea let me finish up with Leslie here and we can talk about it more.’

‘Leslie, you remember my arctic fiasco?’

‘Yes, that was pretty bad.’ Leslie recalled how Sheldon had made some bold claims that turned out to have been freshman level cockups.

‘This stays between us, that fiasco was Leonard.’ Sheldon detailed the story but made the central point explicit; Leonard had screwed him over because he wanted to get back to Penny before she could find another guy.

‘Holy crap, I can’t believe you went easy on him. Your reputation, everything…’ Leslie couldn’t really put into words the ethical and professional violation of it and all over Malibu Barbie.

‘He can’t do anything to me, now, that’s old news. But, you said he thought you knew about Billie and me and he thinks she is Penny.’ Sheldon looked off to the side. Leslie figured he was looking at Billie. ‘Watch your back, Leslie. It’s been so long but I wouldn’t want him to pull some arctic fiasco on you.’

Leslie started to laugh it off but Leonard was acting overwrought. Add that to what he’d done to Sheldon in the arctic when he had barely known Barbie and maybe Sheldon wasn’t being paranoid. ‘Understood, thanks.’

Leslie said her goodbyes and logged off the Skype with Sheldon. She had some work to do to protect her research but she’d been in a field hostile to women for too long to be scared of this or unready. She had her own protocols to handle backstabbing researchers. Hopefully, her husband was just having a stupid midlife crisis but if he tried anything like he did to Sheldon, Leonard would find out she didn’t have Cooper’s sense of mercy.

Geneva, Switzerland

Billie had a set of hardcover books. The first five volumes and one of the promo copies of the book to be released this New Year’s. She was putting a personal message in each for Leslie’s niece. She was also writing some lessons of the Witches Rede in each of the volumes. She thought the coincidence of name worth the time. It felt liberating to teach Christy the good witch’s path that her Christy was taken from. Sheldon walked over to the couch and sat down beside her. He opened the first volume to see what Billie had written. 

My dearest Christy,

Your Aunt Leslie wishes you to have these books, and I thank you for your enjoyment in them. 

Learn you now, Witches, like mortals, can be either good or evil, but only the good witches serve as protectors of the Innocent. The Witches Rede guides good witches in all things.

In Perfect Love and Perfect Trust;

Live ye must and let to live,  
Fairly take and fairly give.  
True in love, ever be,  
Lest thy love be false to thee.

With a fool no season spend,  
Nor be counted as his friend.  
Soft of eye and light of touch,  
Speak ye little, listen much.

Ever mind the rule of three,  
What ye send out comes back to thee.  
This lesson well, thou must learn  
Ye only get what ye do earn. 

Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfill -  
An it harm none, do as ye will.

With much love,  
Billie Jenkins

‘It is a beautiful poem. What brought this on?’ Sheldon was curious about the amount of effort Billie was putting in here.

‘Christy, you know I don’t believe in coincidences, Sheldon, at least not this kind.’ She signed the book she was working on and put it on the coffee table. ‘”With a fool no season spend, nor be counted as his friend” I had forgotten so much. It scares me to think what I was doing to myself.’ Billie levitated the books and opened the pages to read each of the inscriptions. ‘My sister and I, we were not really so different. That’s why I didn’t think about what she was asking of me. She had lived through fifteen years of the same kind of thing I was doing to myself in Pasadena, letting others be our measure. It took me five years to relearn who I was and be my own measure, again.’ She closed each of the books, summoned some bubble wrap and wrapped them up, and levitated them into a shipping box. ‘I didn’t like Leonard at first. The witch in me instinctively didn’t want him but the alcohol did, no, my drowning myself did. I can’t let him do that to Leslie, she is an Innocent dealing with a mess I left behind.’

‘Billie, I think Leslie can handle it. I am pretty sure she’ll be annoyed as hell if we stick our noses into her business even if it is well meant.’ Sheldon saw the protest coming so he hurried to his point. ‘But, none of this would be happening if I hadn’t gone easy on Leonard after the arctic. I might have even got my Nobel sooner, at least had more grant money. We should help but we can’t let Leslie feel she isn’t in the driver’s seat on this. She won’t put up with being treated like a damsel in distress no matter how well intentioned.’

‘I understand, besides, witches aren’t supposed to interfere directly in the mortal world. Much as I might like to turn him into a frog and drop him into a snake pit, that is out of bounds. I need to run a few things by Paige just to make sure I’m not overstepping. I am going to be gone a few days.’ Billie asked for Leslie’s address and wrote it on the box. ‘Could you drop this at the post office today at precisely 10am? I want Leslie to get it in time for Christmas.’

‘Sure, but it would take a miracle at this time of year getting it from Geneva to Pasadena before Christmas.’ He took note of Billie’s skeptical smirk and raised eyebrow. ‘Oh yeah, forgot who I was talking to. What are you going to do if you can’t interfere directly?’

‘Let’s say, something like that box, Leslie’s going to catch a few lucky breaks.’ Billie smiled and disappeared.

‘Well, the house to myself for a few days. Some tea and Christmas cookies and low fiber cereal would make a nice way to start the day.’ Sheldon got out the latest Doctor Who Christmas special and put it in the player. He practically skipped into the kitchen and opened the pantry to get the cookies. It was empty except for a note that he picked up with a sigh.

Dear Sheldon,

This lesson well, thou must learn  
Ye only get what ye do earn.

Get going to the post office,

Love, Billie :)

‘I thought you were supposed to be a good witch?’ Sheldon muttered with a wry grin. 

 

Dec 25  
Pasadena, California

‘Oh, my god, ‘Hexina Afire!’ this doesn’t come out till next month, Aunt Leslie! How did you get this; are you a witch?’ Christy was bouncing on the couch.

‘I’ve heard it mentioned, but no, I’m not a witch. A friend of mine knows Billie Jenkins so I was able to get a hold of her through him. How she got these here by Christmas, you might be asking her about the witchcraft.’ Leslie laughed with her niece. She had been pretty impressed with the size of the box when it arrived because she had expected just the one paperback like the one she’d shown Billie. When she saw the collection of hardcovers she figured what the reaction would be.

Christy opened the first volume and gasped. It was a first edition and Billie had written a message to her personally. ‘Look, the Witches Rede and she wrote it herself, no one is going to believe this.’

Leslie took a look at the front piece and read the poem with Christy. She couldn’t help but wonder if some good witch had helped her over the last week. From Beverly Hofstadter showing up unexpectedly, to Leonard getting caught trying to fiddle her work as his own by President Siebert and some of the Board of Governors that Siebert was showing around on a tour, the whole Arctic Fiasco 2 fell down on Leonard like an avalanche. It was so inept she felt more humor than anger from it. 

Leonard tried to explain but with his mom and Siebert there he fell apart like a child. Leslie almost pitied him but she wasn’t going to forgive him like Cooper. She did relent enough because of better days to let him withdraw from the university, sign an uncontested divorce, and go back home to New Jersey and get into serious therapy. Beverly had called to say Leonard was going to be teaching high school physics in his hometown next year. Beverly thought Leonard might actually have found what he should have been doing with his life.

‘Oh, wow, they all have lessons from the Rede and even stuff from Hexina’s Diary that aren’t in the series yet.’ Christy threw herself on her aunt in tears. Her niece’s reaction was the best Christmas present Leslie had gotten this year.

 

Dec 25  
San Francisco, California

Sheldon still wasn’t used to popping into places. ‘Are you sure we are in the right place?’

‘Yeah, of course, why?’ Billie looked around wondering why Sheldon had asked that. They had been here for the Solstice Celebration.

‘There’s no sign of Christmas decorations. I would have thought the way this place was done up for the Solstice there would be a veritable Yuletide Hell for today.’ Sheldon looked around expecting some Christmas surprise party to leap out at him.

‘We’re witches, Sheldon, the Solstice is our holiday. Christmas is just a day for goofy hats, too much food, and Christmas specials. I always vote for Albert Finney’s Scrooge. I like the musical specials.’

‘It comes without ribbons? It comes without tags? It comes without packages, boxes, or bags? This is a Christmas I simply must see.’ Sheldon was so happy they told his mom they wanted to head out early for San Francisco after the Christmas Service. Fortunately, Meemaw had been there and figuring what the youngsters wanted was some alone time she supported them saying Billie would want to be seeing her family at the holidays, too.

Phoebe and Paige came down the stairs when they sensed Billie’s Projection spell popping her and Sheldon into the mansion. ‘Hey, guys, how was Texas?’ Phoebe was carrying some leftover Solstice Cake and punch that Sheldon had liked so much. 

Paige orbed Billie and Sheldon’s things up to their room. ‘Come on in to the living room. We’re just waiting on Piper to get back from China Town with the Peking Ducks.’

Sheldon settled into his preferred couch seat and dug into the Solstice Cake and punch. He loved living with a witch.

**Author's Note:**

> Posted at Fanfiction Archive as well under Akaxkr but this is the long version.  
> 


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